Press Archive 2011

09.12.11: Klaus Blaum elected as a member of DFG Review Board

Division director Klaus Blaum
will be a member of the DFG
(German Research Foundation) Review Board 308 Optics,
Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas during the membership period 2012-2015.

31.10.11: Klaus Blaum receives ERC Advanced Grant

Division director Klaus Blaum has been selected to receive one of the prestigious
ERC Advanced Grants. The European Research Council (ERC)
will support his projects on Precision Measurements of Fundamental Constants (MEFUCO) with
€2,16 million for the next 5 years.

As we reported on June 20, 2011 division members observed for the first time spin
flips of a single trapped proton in free space. This is a major step towards a
million-fold improved test of matter–antimatter symmetry using a nuclear magnetic moment.
The renowned scientific journal Nature has published an article about this
important achievement. Please read more here
... >

08.07.11: Quantum Electrodynamics put to test

Members of the working group around Klaus Blaum have experimentally tested
the Quantum Electrodynamics in strong fields (BS-QED) with unprecedented accuracy.
The new experimental value of the g factor of the electron bound in
hydrogenlike 28Si13+ is in excellent agreement with the
extremely precise QED calculations of the theory group around
Christoph Keitel .
(See also our news of 08.07.11)

21.06.11: Quantum leap: Magnetic properties of a single
proton directly observed for the first time

The most important milestone in the direct measurement of the magnetic moment of the
proton and its anti-particle has been achieved. Here is a little selection of the
numerous press releases about this great scientific success:

The Max Planck Society supports
the collaboration of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik in Heidelberg (subgroup of
Prof. Klaus Blaum) and the Institut für Physik of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald
(subgroup of Prof. Lutz Schweikhard )
with a new research initiative.
The aim is the storage and investigation of extremely cold cluster ions and nano-aggregates
in the Cryogenic Storage Ring CSR at Heidelberg. This facility will allow
worldwide unique investigations.
Read more about the new collaboration in the press releases of the MPIK
and the Informationsdienst Wissenschaft .

Vanessa Simon, a Ph.D. student of Klaus Blaum working at TRIUMF was awarded 3rd prize for Best
Student Presentation at the 2011 Winter Nuclear and Particle Physics Conference in
Banff, Alberta. Topic of her 20 minute presentation was the "TITAN Penning Trap for
Cooling Highly-Charged Radioactive Ions at ISAC".
Please read more in the
TRIUMF announcement .

Members of our division participated in a precision mass measurement on gadolinium-152 at the
GSI-Helmholtzzentrum in Darmstadt, Germany. The result shows that gadolinium-152 is a promising candidate
to answer the question whether the neutrino is its own antiparticle which has far-reaching consequences for
particle physics and cosmology.
(See also our news of 05.02.2011.)
Read more about the important precision measurement in the press release of the
MPIK and the
Informationsdienst Wissenschaft .